19 replies to this topic

[jayroller]

Just recently my computer has been playing up, a couple of days ago when i switched it on i could hear the fan making quite a noise (usually its starts of fairly noisy and then quietens down)

Anyway yesterday i came home from work and noticed that the computer was off but the monitor was on. I switched the computer on and came back to it when it booted up. Everything seemed fine if not a little noisy. I was about to open firefox (didnt actually click it to open just moved mouse)and the screen just went blank for a second and then came back on. now the mouse cursor wouldn't move, then the screen went black again for a second and came back on(kept doing this ). So I turned off the computer and switched it back on, no problems this time.

I started to burn a few files to dvd (backing up), the computer had been on about 1 hour maybe more and then just shut itself off. i left it for 30 mins or so and switched it back on and left it idle, again after an hour or so it switched itself off.

Not being very good when it comes to computers i have very litlle idea as to whats up, I did open the case to see if i could see anything and saw that it was a little dusty to say the least, i blew around to clear up the dust, the card which the monitor plugs into was dusty so i gave that a brush down(as best i could without the proper equipment)i also noticed that the power supply unit was giving out a lot of heat.(switched off at this point for a couple of mins)

does anybody know whats wrong? and whether its fixable and if so at what cost?

to recap , when i boot it up there is a lot of noise (from the fan i think),but seems to be booting up pretty quickly, the monitor sometimes cuts off for a second or so, and the computer shuts off after an hour or so.(maybe something overheating?)


oh yeah, im using Windows XP, and have an 2Gig athlon processor (dont know what type), with 256 mb ram and all cards are securely in place

any help would be much appreciated

[Magz]

I'd say it is probably overheating. If it's noisy, then it could be that one (or more) of the fans is either faulty, clogged up with gunk, or has a stray cable stuck in it. The 1st one I'd check is the CPU fan, and its power connectors (usually to the motherboard).

Most newish systems have an area in the bios that lists things like temp, fan speed etc. To get to it, it'll likely be F2 or the Del key once the system starts up. Once there, look to see if the temp is constantly rising in the case, or on the CPU.

[kingkallum82]

Is the whole system switching off or just the monitor?

Kallum

[jayroller]

Is the whole system switching off or just the monitor?

Kallum

its just the system that shuts down now, gonna check the fans and give everything a proper brush/clean when i get home and see if that helps

Any tips on how to clean inside properly? what to use? what not to use?

thanks

[kingkallum82]

Well what i use is 'air in a can' (spray duster) Which will give everything a good blasting without damaging anything. I use this at work so it will be fine.

Please let me know how you get on, Drop me a PM rather than filling up the thread

Kallum

[nails]

i have similar problems with my pc after weve had a cold spell, the fan make noise like no tommorow (ball bearings i would presume) then last month an awful plastic smell came from the pc! the fan on the pci-e card had melted! abut the actual smell was coming from my 550watt jeantech powersupply, so silent that i had no idea the fan ceased to work, thus all the hot air just accumulated.

ive now upgraded to a whopping 600watt salamander psu, so far so good, byt swear this pc is cursed (probably the microsoft curse)

[cliffc]

Well what i use is 'air in a can' (spray duster) Which will give everything a good blasting without damaging anything. I use this at work so it will be fine.

Please let me know how you get on, Drop me a PM rather than filling up the thread

Kallum

Hi

As a fully paid up member of the PC teccy club I can with 99% accruacy promiced say that the problems you have are CPU overheat related so the Fan on your CPU would be the 1st one to check/clean if cleaning dont help then you will need to get a new one ASAP, I would also avoid running your PC until the situation is fully resolved, allthough your pc is automaticly shutting down when the temp gets to high to help protect your CPU, overheating does reduce CPU life, as stated in a previous post you can check the cpu fan speed in the BIOS on Boot up, however if the fan is noisy i would think its more than dust, I would just replace as the cost should be no more than a fiver at your local frendly computer store.

Cliff C

[stanmarsh14]

its just the system that shuts down now, gonna check the fans and give everything a proper brush/clean when i get home and see if that helps

Any tips on how to clean inside properly? what to use? what not to use?

thanks

Probs best thing to use is a 1/2 inch paint brush which you can pick up cheep enough from Wilco's.

Like the others have been suggesting, i'm 90% certain it's overheating & the noisy fan is also proof of this.

If you are around the Sheffield / Crystal Peaks / Medowhall / Hillsbough aera & you are still struggling I maybe in the aera week on saturday if you need a hand.

[Jimmy_mac]

I maybe in the aera week on saturday if you need a hand.

he wants pc help not your perverted ways stan

just as a side note to what others are saying here, if you do get her on for a while then goole "speedfan" download it and run it. Will give temps of the Cpu, HDD and such so can get an idea if the CPU is overheating or a little hot once fixed and whether it would then be worth getting a new heatsink etc

[jayroller]

Thanks for the replies guys i will try the suggestions later when i get home and will let you know what happens

just as a side note to what others are saying here, if you do get her on for a while then goole "speedfan" download it and run it. Will give temps of the Cpu, HDD and such so can get an idea if the CPU is overheating or a little hot once fixed and whether it would then be worth getting a new heatsink etc

jsut downloaded speedfan this morning will try running that if i get it running and see what its says, once again thanks all for your comments

[Marty]

a noisy fan and shutting down without warning usually relates to either:

1: PSU Unit (this is probably what's broken)
2: Chassis fan (but that shouldn't cause a problem)

I can't seeing it being the CPU Fan as it wouldn't take more than about 10 - 15 minutes for that to shut down as those 2Ghz Althon's processors can cause quite a bit of heat. Then you would have to wait a while to boot up again.

Speedfan is okay but it might show temperatures of 127C and -128C, just ingore them. You want a temperature of about 35C (idle) - 55C (playing a game.)

If all the temps are fine, then it could be a loose processor, in which case just push the processor to the motherboard gently. Or you got something arcing electricity somewhere (which may be monitor) so try leaving the computer on without the monitor plugged in.

[Jimmy_mac]

could be the CPU fan, if the processor is not doing excessive work then the heatsink could be working well enough to offer some passive cooling for the time being but just not able to cope overall.

It could also be the PSU as you said yourself, thing to do is identify exactly where the sound is coming from, briefly boot up with the side panel off and listen carefully to the system to see if you can identify the source

[jayroller]

O.k ive cleaned it out (the fans were covered in gunk) and booted up it seems quieter. i went into the bios and looked at the temperatures it reported and it said cpu temp was 40-55C (is that normal?), I downloaded speedfan but ive got no idea which readings for what can anyone tell me what im looking at?

Attached Files

•  Clipboard01.jpg   34.02KB   26 downloads

[Jimmy_mac]

temp 1 is mobo, temp 2 is cpu, showing at 55 degrees there. whats the cpu you got?

[Jamesbond_007838]

PSU looks a bit flaky anyway going by those voltages.

Surely -12v should be -12.0v not -4.97, for a start.

New PSU from Ebuyer will cost you less than a tenner, sounds like a PSU problem anyway.

Maybe put some thermal grease on the heatsink cause 55 is quite warm.

[jayroller]

just wanted to say that i switched it back on last night (turned it straight off after my last post) and the noise was back and was coming from the cpu fan.

I will probably just take it to the shop at least that way i will know for certain what the problem is and it will be fixed

[Jimmy_mac]

if you not too confident in there then its prob best to but make sure they dont try to fleece you, best taking it to an indepenant retailer. Usually do better work there. If he suggesting it costs anything over about £50 then opo back and let us know what he reckon needs doing

[jayroller]

just found out my mates next door neighbour owns a computer shop so i am gonna take it to him, hopefully he will do it at cost, but ill have to wait and see

Thanks again to all who replied

[stanmarsh14]

As a guide I have not long ago purchased a coolermaster HS/fan for under a tenner from this place in Derby. Big f*** off 80mm fan & heatsink that can cover AMD XP's upto 3200... was abit worried that it would fit, but it did & is silent as f***.